5 of the 10th Tales: The Next Doctor

Greetings fans of the Doctor and welcome back for Day 4 of 5 of the 10^th Tales. We will be skipping ahead to what is affectionately referred as the first of the 4 part finales with Tennant stepping down as the Doctor. This of course caused many emotions to flare. Loss, betrayal and sadness ranking as the highest of the lot. It is 1851, Victorian Era as The Doctor on his own lands his blue box in the heart of London on Christmas Eve. No sooner than a bit of looky loo he hears screams for help and springs into action. A young woman calling for the Doctor, Rosita (Velile Tshabalala of Streets, The Crouches, Kerching!, Euphoria and Silent Witness) as he arrives, another well-heeled gentleman also makes his way on the scene calling himself the Doctor. This is The Next Doctor.

Expelliarmus!!

Rosita and "the Doctor" (David Morrissey of Out of Control, State of Play, The Deal, Blackpool, Is Anybody There?, Line of Sight and The Walking Dead) have been following an investigation on the disappearance of people all around London attempt to capture a Cybershade (A Cyberman created servant usually made from a cat or dog) in order to have more information of the Cybermen's plans for this time line and how they will directly alter human history. The Doctor going by the old alias "John Smith" travels with this future incarnation who seems to be suffering from amnesia.

The two Doctors poke about the house of the late Reverend Fairchild, who is believed to be tied in to the disappearances when the two discover Cybermen infostamps (a data storage device) when the new Doctor recalls holding one the night he lost his memories. The two are immediately attack by Cybermen while the Doctor fends them off with a cutlass and rather deftly screaming to them that they have forgotten their own old enemy announcing who he is. The Next Doctor fries both of the Cybermen with an overloaded infostamp discharge. Handy trinket that.

Bloody snow freezing up the materialization circuits!!

One of the first of the missing men, a Jackson Lake seems to have vanished without a trace as the Doctor hypothesizes how the Cybermen could have ended up in this time, the answer being stolen tech from the Daleks during the Doomsday episode being a Dimension Vault. Rosita and the Doctor discover a vast underground complex using children yanked from workhouses as labor for this operation. The Cybermen's human ally, Miss Mercy Hartigan (Dervla Kirwan of School for Seduction, Casanova, 55 Degrees North, True Dare Kiss, Material Girl, The Silence, Injustice and Blackout) a scullery maid with a lust for power and respect gives the Cybermen slave labor to rebuild and power their downed spacecraft, a Dreadnought class cruiser.

Can the Doctors stop the Cybermen in time? Will they be able to rescue the children? Why can't the Next Doctor remember who he is?

David Morrissey was only cast 5 days before filming. No pressure there. Images of all the previous ten incarnations of the Doctor are shot on-screen leading up to David Tennant.

This was the first episdoe to be broadcast after David Tennant's announcement that he would step down from the role of the Doctor in 2010. I loved the working title of this episode as it was Court of the Cyberking. This was a pairing of both Tennant and Morrissey as they previously worked together on Blackpool.

Off for a stroll... Don't mind me!